RE: Sharing Common Files

[Matt Doar]

Perhaps this is belabouring the obvious, but soft links within
repositories are not versioned, so when you want to change where the
link points to in a few months from now, you won't be able to build the
older versions of your product. 

So regardless of whether you are linking to files or directories, server
side soft links are not a good idea. A client side script to recreate
them can be versioned. Modules are not versioned either, though I think
there was a patch to do this a few months ago, but you can define new
modules and still preserve the older ones.

~Matt

> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden 
> [mailto:address@hidden 
> On Behalf Of Jim.Hyslop
> Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 8:25 AM
> To: 'Todd Denniston'; Dean Do
> Cc: address@hidden
> Subject: RE: Sharing Common Files
> 
> Todd Denniston wrote:
> > assuming unix,
> > in proj_2_tree
> > |
> > |- dir1
> >     |- file1 softlink to ../proj_1_tree/file1
> > |- dir2
> >     |- file2 softlink to ../proj_1_tree/file2
> >     |- file3 softlink to ../proj_1_tree/file3
> > |- proj_1_tree
> >    |
> >    |- file1
> >    |- file2
> >    |- file3
> Is "soft link" the same as a "symlink?" If they are 
> different, then the rest
> of this message _might_ not apply.
> 
> If they are the same, then this is a Really Bad Idea. The 
> problem is, CVS
> sees dir1/file1 and proj_1_tree/file1 as completely separate, 
> independent
> files. If user A is checking into dir1, then CVS will not 
> lock proj_1_tree.
> This means that user B can simultaneously check in changes 
> into proj_1_tree
> - leading to... shall we say, all kinds of fun.
> 
> Bottom line: symlinks, if used at all, should _only_ be used for
> directories, not for files.
> 
> -- 
> Jim Hyslop
> Senior Software Designer
> Leitch Technology International Inc. ( http://www.leitch.com )
> Columnist, C/C++ Users Journal ( http://www.cuj.com/experts )
> 
> 
> 
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